No, not if you're paying $250 + $60. No game is worth $310. Not even Halo 4. If you could borrow a 360 or rent one then rent the game from somewhere for a day or two (single player is only about 6 hours), then it might be worth it if you're a die hard Halo fan.

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why do you say it looks amazing? Looks (graphics) just like any good game that has come out in the last year or two.

Not really.

I'm a huge proponent of custom game engines, because it shows that the company who made the game cared enough about the end user experience that they went out of their way to actually write a functional engine and build their game around that. When you write your own engine, you can do exactly what you want. You're only limited by the talent of your programmers, and nothing else.

Case in point, a lot of triple-A hackjobs out there today are built around UDK or idTech. And it shows. Neither UDK nor idTech *really* run well on the 360. They run, acceptably, but it isn't stellar. Textures need to be down sampled because of limited VRAM, shaders need to be reduced in quality because of the limited GPU capabilities. Forget about AA or any of that stuff- you've already maxed the console by the time you have your game running and semi-playable.

ME3 and Borderlands 2 run on the 360, but the quality is inferior to that on the PC. ME3 in particular had some serious issues with texturing (stuff I'm surprised they shipped with)- but that's what you get when your game engine is so brutally unoptimized that you have to down sample textures from 2048x2048 to 256x256 to make it run smoothly.

Halo 4 is borderline PC quality. From a 2006 console. That's one hell of an achievement, if you ask me- pulling that sort of thing off with UDK or idTech would be impossible. I'm not saying that there haven't been "good games" out in the last year, because there's been plenty- but let me put it this way- I've bought more then one title recently where the quality of the graphics has painfully reminded me how old my aging console is. With Halo 4, it made me feel like I'd just bought a new console again. The graphics are that stellar.

why do you say it looks amazing? Looks (graphics) just like any good game that has come out in the last year or two.

AA, highly contrasting HDR, fixed fps with no drops, almost no loading, no texture pop-ins, nice textures and animation, lots of shaders and visual effects that shouldn't be possible on 6 year old hardware.

I will admit, it is pretty darn impressive. The texture work is definitely IMO the largest aspect of its "wow" factor. Makes you almost wonder where they got the memory from to do it. There must be a secret behind this engine. Several secrets, to be exact.

AA, highly contrasting HDR, fixed fps with no drops, almost no loading, no texture pop-ins, nice textures and animation, lots of shaders and visual effects that shouldn't be possible on 6 year old hardware.

Umm interesting stuff, I will have to see it in action then. Maybe, I'm just spoiled w/ Uncharted on the PS3, but I will see this new Halo game in action to compare.

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I HATE the Warthog sound. Much too loud and distracting, and the "shift" points are just silly.

To be honest, the rest of the sound has be disappointed too. The music during the game now is over the top, but also in the way when trying to play. Guns? Still nothing beats BLACK for gun noise. Shooting different objects in Halo 2 IMO had the most impact of what things sounded like.

Story..still disappointed. I don't, and won't read the books either. Multiplayer, IMO not all too far from COD or the other Halos. All in all, another fun, but not as good as Halo 1.

Also, as far as the graphics are concerned, I really think people are misguided on art direction vs graphics prowess. To me, the art direction here is VERY good, but I the graphics themselves are on the level of any other AAA Xbox360 game....not advanced as many people state.

AA, highly contrasting HDR, fixed fps with no drops, almost no loading, no texture pop-ins, nice textures and animation, lots of shaders and visual effects that shouldn't be possible on 6 year old hardware.

I happen to agree with Carlanga somewhat. I have the game and the first thing I noticed was that it is not true 720p HD. True 720p games have a more crisp, sharp look (DOA5 or Tekken Tag 2, for example). IMO, the graphics in the game are good, but nothing incredible. There are other games made by third party companies (like the ones I mentioned from Namco and Team Ninja) that are 60fps and run in true 720p HD, and have the same level of graphics that Halo 4 has, or better. The games I mentioned, however, contain very enclosed environments as they're fighting games, so that may be why they're able to increase the quality of the other aspects.

I happen to agree with Carlanga somewhat. I have the game and the first thing I noticed was that it is not true 720p HD. True 720p games have a more crisp, sharp look (DOA5 or Tekken Tag 2, for example). IMO, the graphics in the game are good, but nothing incredible. There are other games made by third party companies (like the ones I mentioned from Namco and Team Ninja) that are 60fps and run in true 720p HD, and have the same level of graphics that Halo 4 has, or better. The games I mentioned, however, contain very enclosed environments as they're fighting games, so that may be why they're able to increase the quality of the other aspects.

Interesting - I heard somewhere that the game was made using an upgraded Halo Reach engine, and automatically assumed it was the same because the resolution looked the same as Reach to me. Interesting article.

So, just finished the campaign. I liked it, 343 Industries seems to be driven to make story driven Halo games.

With that said, the story felt very derivative of Mass Effect. Top that with Keith Szarabajka voicing Didact (voice of ME's Harbinger) and Jennifer Hale voicing Spartan Sarah Palmer (voice of ME's female Shepard), I wasn't able to shake the feeling that I was playing a thinly veiled "homage" to Mass Effect.

All in all, it was fun, I'm going to play with the Spartan Ops this weekend. I hope I can make a female Spartan.

Entertainment Weekly (what do they know about gaming?) gives Halo 4 a C+

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But the game is ultimately an empty, deflating, even dull experience. Stranded on a distant planet, the Chief attempts to defeat an ancient alien-who, naturally wants to destroy Earth. The graphics are fine, but not compelling. The gameplay is solid, but unoriginal. The campaign is short, repetitive, and outright incoherent. As a video game, it's safe, flabby, and uninspired: everything the original Halo wasn't.

I remember the huge "goodbye kiss" they gave at the end of the last Halo. "It's been so wonderful, one hell of a ride, goodbyeeeeeee"- right.

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Agree with most of what was written here. My first reaction (early on) was it was like playing through Abrams' Star Trek, with all the lens flare effects; and much of the graphics improvements are related to that. Most Halo games have quite simple, bland environments (in particular the Forerunner architecture) so might not necessarily be the most taxing of games on the hardware.

I thought the sound effects were a bit annoying too, particularly the Warthog; just the wrong side of annoying.

It's a worthy game, if a bit formulaic. If it was "Halo 2" then this game might be one of the greatest games ever, but the gaming world has moved on a bit, and it doesn't really offer anything new. Yadda yadda... big ship threatening Earth, lone Master Chief going solo to stop it.. No major sense of drama; more a routine that you had to get through.

There were some definitely some pluses, new vehicles (loved the Mammoth). One qualm is the missions were too short, and the areas in which you could pilot the vehicles were too small.

Cortana does play a very big part in this one, strengthening the story somewhat.

Agree with most of what was written here. My first reaction (early on) was it was like playing through Abrams' Star Trek, with all the lens flare effects; and much of the graphics improvements are related to that. Most Halo games have quite simple, bland environments (in particular the Forerunner architecture) so might not necessarily be the most taxing of games on the hardware.

I thought the sound effects were a bit annoying too, particularly the Warthog; just the wrong side of annoying.

It's a worthy game, if a bit formulaic. If it was "Halo 2" then this game might be one of the greatest games ever, but the gaming world has moved on a bit, and it doesn't really offer anything new. Yadda yadda... big ship threatening Earth, lone Master Chief going solo to stop it.. No major sense of drama; more a routine that you had to get through.

There were some definitely some pluses, new vehicles (loved the Mammoth). One qualm is the missions were too short, and the areas in which you could pilot the vehicles were too small.

Cortana does play a very big part in this one, strengthening the story somewhat.

Pristine, not bland It's by design tho, always been that way...one of the reasons I love Halo. I don't get how people say it's short tho. If you play on legendary it takes a while, but it's a shooter it's not supposed to go on forever like Skyrim. I have high hopes for Spartan Ops as well. Very cool idea having episodes every week to continue the story until the next game. Obviously it's a little simplified right now cuz of disc and console constraints but with the new Xbox specs I can see this leading to very cool content to add to the campaign and PVE side of the game.